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" Forget seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness, the clocks have gone back and we find ourselves enveloped in long, dark nights, howling gales and, as All Hallow&amp;#039;s Eve approaches, a curious inclination to scare ourselves witless with a good old-fashioned ghost story. The Grande Dame of the Supernatural In this there is no finer modern exponent of the art than Susan Hill. Hill&amp;#039;s 1983 classic The Woman in Black (Vintage) has endured for the good reason that it is completely terrifying (and has a vastly less cosy ending than the movie). The chilling tale of Arthur Kipps and his sojourn at the dankly named Eel Marsh House where he encounters a vengeful wraith dressed head to toe in black may carry a degree of inevitability, but is no less creepy for that. If you&amp;#039;re already a fan of Hill&amp;#039;s eerie yarns, look out for The Small Hand and Dolly, just published in a single paperback edition, and Black Sheep (Chatto &amp;amp;amp; Windus) which, whilst not a ghost story in the traditional sense, is equally chilling.\u00A0 The Literary Ghost Story A lonely, crumbling stately home and an unexplained presence also adds to the sense of impending doom in Sarah Waters&amp;#039; Little Stranger (Virago). Set at the close of World War Two, an unsuspecting doctor stumbles across an old family struggling to cope with its own decline as the symbols of its wealth and status decay around it. Whilst in Diana (The Thirteenth Tale) Setterfield&amp;#039;s new novel, Bellman &amp;amp;amp; Black (Orion), a young boy&amp;#039;s casual encounter with a rook brings him into contact with death for the first time, but very much not the last. The Horror Classic Reinvented Hammer - once better known as Hammer House of Horror, seventies kids - has been quick to capitalise on its horror heritage. Not only was it behind the film adaptation of Woman in Black, it has commissioned a quartet of bestselling novelists to produce a series of disquieting tales: from Helen Dunmore&amp;#039;s gentle post-war ghost story, The Greatcoat, to Jeanette Winterson&amp;#039;s unapologetically gruesome retelling of the Pendle witches, The Daylight Gate, by way of Sophie Hannah&amp;#039;s eerie Orphan Choir and Julie Myerson&amp;#039;s contemporary poltergeist in The Quickening. Each, in their own way, so unsettling that I can hardly wait to see what DBC Pierre does with Breakfast With The Borgias (June, 2014).\u00A0 But for a truly chilling tale there is nothing quite like Henry James&amp;#039; masterful turn of the century novella, The Turn of the Screw, a classic fireside tale about the true nature of evil... Are you quite sure you locked the door? "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.harpersbazaar.co.uk/culture/staying-in/news/a21380/sam-bakers-ghost-stories-for-halloween/>